LoveReading Says
In Went to London, Took the Dog, Nina Stibbe transplants herself and her cockapoo Peggy to London for one year while she tries to figure out her life. Stibbe writes wonderfully about her adult children, the challenge of menopause, the joys of a pub quiz and even drops a name or 92.
Forty years after Stibbe first moved to London to be a nanny—the basis for her best-seller Love, Nina-- Stibbe found herself again in the city, as a lodger to the novelist Deborah Moggach. This time, Stibbe is older, wiser and better connected, but still has the same charm, and occasional bafflement about London that she did before.
Although the laughs are plentiful, it is a diary, which means no detail of day-to-day life is too small to be excluded. Some may find this delightful, others might find it a bit banal, or maybe a bit of both. I found her tips for looking after a London garden interesting, but I really didn’t need to know what Charlie Bingham meal she had on any given day. Although she hints at marriage trouble and her sadness about that, she never fully explains what is happening, and I respect that. We don’t need to know, and she doesn’t need to tell us.
Stibbe has a gift for comedy, as evidenced by her wins and shortlists for both the Comedy Women in Print award and the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize. That gift is on display here, too, but this diary isn’t about the laughs. It’s about appreciating your adult children, learning to be alone, navigating menopause, winning pub quizzes, but mostly about figuring out life, in all its vexing glory.
Maureen Stapleton
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Went to London, Took the Dog: A Diary Synopsis
Twenty years after leaving London, Nina Stibbe is back in town with her dog, Peggy. Together they take up lodging in the house of writer Deborah (Debby) Moggach in Camden for 'a year-long sabbatical'.
It’s a break from married life back in Cornwall, or even perhaps a fresh start altogether. Debby does not have many demands – only to water the garden, watch for toads, and defrost the odd pie – so Nina is free to explore the city she once called home.
Between scrutinising her son’s online dating developments, navigating the politics of the local pool, and taking detergent advice at the laundrette, this diary of a sixty-year-old runaway reunites us with the inimitable voice of Love, Nina, as the writer becomes, as she puts it, 'a proper adult' at last.
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9781035025299 |
| Publication date: |
2nd November 2023 |
| Author: |
Nina Stibbe |
| Publisher: |
Picador an imprint of Pan Macmillan |
| Format: |
Hardback |
| Pagination: |
337 pages |
| Primary Genre |
Biographies & Autobiographies
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| Other Genres: |
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Nina Stibbe Press Reviews
'Vulnerable, sharp, funny, wise' Bonnie Garmus, bestselling author of Lessons in Chemistry
'A unique comic voice, endlessly funny. Nina makes me laugh so much' David Nicholls
'No one writes heartbreak more hilariously, or hilarity more heartbreakingly. No one does a better job of making the ordinary phenomenal' Katherine Heiny, author of Early Morning Riser
'Painfully funny, but also deeply moving. I never wanted it to end' Meg Mason, author of Sorrow and Bliss
'What an utter, UTTER treat! It was like spending time with my most clever, insightful, funny, FUNNY friend. I'm so sad it's over' Marian Keyes
'So sharp and funny, blissfully gossipy, enviably well-observed — it’s like she has X-ray vision when it comes to human beings. I couldn’t stop reading it. I wish it were twice as long. I loved it' India Knight
'I don’t think I’ve enjoyed a diary so much since I read Adrian Mole for the first time' Daisy Buchanan
'Funny, warm, enlightening. The reading equivalent of getting the giggles in the back row of a school assembly' Santham Sanghera, author of Empireland
'I loved this book. Stibbe’s joyful midlife observations, her nods to the wonders and absurdities of the everyday, are so life-affirming. I started seeing pockets of humour in my own ordinary days - and actually felt bereft when I turned the last page' Lucy Atkins, author of Magpie Lane
'Stibbe turns out more perfect, sharp, unique sentences than anyone else' Caitlin Moran
'One of the most hilarious, insightful, addictive writers working today' Jenny Colgan
'Like spending an endless afternoon in the most sparkling company but without any pressure to sparkle back' Frank Cottrell-Boyce
'Nina Stibbe makes being funny look easy, but that's just because she's very, very good at it' Clare Chambers
One of the great comic writers of our time - Irish Times
Stibbe is an unassuming comic genius - Independent
Breezy, sophisticated, hilarious, rude and aching with sweetness: Love, Nina might be the most charming book I've ever read -- Maria Semple, author of Where'd You Go, Bernadette
The funniest new writer to arrive in years -- Andrew O'Hagan -
